Governance assessment through participatory consultation
A governance baseline assessment was implemented in February 2014 at village, village cluster, district and provincial level to collect data on the governance and management of the Hin Nam No NA so far. This participatory exercise gave a platform to voice disappointment and problems and it gave ideas on the direction and strategic vision of the Hin Nam No PA by bringing various stakeholders together. The governance baseline assessment also included an exercise of measuring management effectiveness and good governance based on a self-assessment method developed by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (Mardiastuti et al. 2013) and a questionnaire developed by the Hin Nam No project and based on annex 3 of the IUCN publication “Governance of Protected Areas” (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2013).
Face-to-face dialogue. Creation of common understanding and trust building in meetings between state and non-state stakeholders. Solid, transparent and well-documented process, which cannot be ignored by local authorities as high number of people and stakeholders involved. Facilitation by neutral facilitator bringing the parties together. Strong leadership by decision makers at national; provincial and district level.
The methods used for measuring management effectiveness and good governance are relatively easy and cost-effective and therefore suitable for annual repetition. The methodology fits well in the Lao context. Discussions around each indicator question are as valid as the final monitoring result. The methodology of yearly self-assessments in various groups is an easy way of social monitoring in which qualitative indicators can be quantified and compared over time. The tools are suitable for further action planning by identifying first of all the areas in which an improvement can be relatively easily obtained. The limited resources are mainly allocated to these areas instead of focusing on areas in which the protected area has limited potential for change. The results can also be easily presented to outside stakeholders to try to improve on areas that are beyond the influence of the park management.